News from the IADR

Every year, the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) holds a research meeting. In June this year, the meeting was held in stunningly beautiful Cape Town. Presenters submit a 300 word abstract, and if this is accepted, they present their findings as a 15 minute oral presentation or as a research poster. I was fortunate enough to have two abstracts accepted, so was able to spend three days at the meeting. I now present some of the information that I picked up from some of the 1674 abstracts presented, these also being available on the IADR website (www.IADR.org) 2014. I therefore present the papers which I attended and found to be of interest, given my background in dental materials, and their application to clinical dentistry and in primary dental care.

Regarding dental materials, there were the usual substantial number of papers on dentine bonding, and bond strengths of various materials to tooth substance. My own view is that the most relevant appraisal of a bonding agent is its potential to retain restorations in non-retentive cavities, such as Class V. One such paper (abstract 1157) examined the survival rates of 104 restorations, with retention rates of 86% and 89% at 5 years, the higher value (although not statistically significant) being when the enamel margins were etched. However, what was significant was that, in the non-etch group, the enamel margins showed more marginal discoloration and more marginal defects than in the group where the enamel margins had been etched. Other papers confirmed this with other materials. My conclusion – while I do not have data for every dentine so-called self-etch bonding agent (there are about 50 of them on the market at the last count!), I feel that there is sufficient evidence to support selective enamel etching if we want to optimize our enamel margins during clinical use of these materials. When I think about it, it makes sense, as we have known the effectiveness of etching with phosphoric acid for almost 60 years!